Religion news: British government study finds Islamic plot to control UK schools

A British government investigation found evidence that Muslim fundamentalists were successful in gaining control of some schools. The plan to promote aggressive religious values fuels fear that students may be vulnerable to radicalization.

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The Lake News Online

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Posted Jul. 27, 2014 at 8:00 AM

Posted Jul. 27, 2014 at 8:00 AM

Lake area

A British government investigation found evidence that Muslim fundamentalists were successful in gaining control of some schools. The plan to promote aggressive religious values fuels fear that students may be vulnerable to radicalization.

The report, published on July 22, said there had been a “coordinated, deliberate and sustained action” at some schools in Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city, to introduce an “intolerant and aggressive Islamic ethos.” The report found a “coordinated, deliberate and sustained action” by a number of people to force the adoption of “an unquestioning attitude to a particular hard-line strand of Sunni Islam” by some of the city’s schools.

The study found a pattern in which school authorities criticized and bullied teachers, and where new board members were rapidly promoted.

While the report did criticize Birmingham City Council for failure to alert authorities of practices that made teachers concerned that students were learning to be intolerant of diversity, the investigation did not find any evidence of violent extremism.

The plan for the “effective take-over” was enacted by conservative Muslims active within the school system.

The Word

Jehovah: A somewhat archaic English rendering of the four Hebrew letters, usually transliterated as YHWH, that form the name of God. The preferred term of modern scholars is Yahweh. Jews traditionally never pronounce this name, substituting the Hebrew word Adonai, meaning “my Lord,” and they add vowel markings in Hebrew Bibles that literally render the name unpronounceable.